DC Comics
Between Marvel's ever-expanding cinematic universe, Sony's tangled web of Amazing Spider-Man characters, and the way Fox keeps rolling out X-Men films, Hollywood is in the middle of a veritable superhero onslaught. However, NikkiFinke.com reports that things are only just getting started, with DC and Warner Bros. planning to roll out their own interconnected series very soon. In addition to Batman Vs. Superman: Dawn of Justice, the studios are working on a Justice League movie and solo films for Wonder Woman and Shazam, as well as a Flash/Green Lantern crossover and yet another outing for Superman.
Warner Bros. was set to officially unveil the plans at this year's Comic-Con, along with new details about the upcoming Sandman film with Joseph Gordon-Levitt and a tentative release schedule that would take them well into 2018. According to the site, the studio has been working on this for some time, and even delayed the release of Batman Vs. Superman so that it would better fit with the rest of the planned universe. With so many films lined up for such a short period of time (expect at least two DC films a year for the next four years) it can be a little difficult keeping track of everything on the slate. We've run down everything we know about the upcoming DC/Warner Bros. universe, along with the reasons you should get excited about them. Although it is kind of hard to be enthusiastic about two Man of Steel sequels.
Batman Vs. Superman: Dawn of Justice Release Date: May 2016 Who's In It: Henry Cavill, Amy Adams, and Laurence Fishburne will all reprise their roles from Man of Steel, and will be joined by Ben Affleck as Batman, Jeremy Irons as Alfred, Jesse Eisenberg as Lex Luthor and Gal Gadot as Wonder Woman. What We Know About It: Plot details are still being kept under wraps, but it will feature Superman facing off against a "older, worn-down" Batman in some capacity. The film's also supposed to be both a follow up to Man of Steel and a prequel for the Justice League movie, so Wonder Woman and Cyborg will be involved in some capacity, although thus far it's not known how much screen time they'll get. How Excited We Are For It: Anything that gets fans as riled up as this film has is definitely worth seeing. As of right now, though, it's hard to predict if it will live up to all of its hype.
Shazam Release Date: July 2016 Who He Is: Originally known as Captain Marvel, Shazam is the altar ego of sports reporter Billy Baston, who was given magical powers by an ancient wizard who wanted Billy to help people. When he says "Shazam!" he is transformed into a super-human with powers from six mythical heroes: wisdom from King Solomon, strength from Hercules, stamina from Atlas, the power of Zeus, courage from Achilles, and speed from Mercury. What We Know About It: Not much. A Shazam film was rumored to be in the works until recently, when Peter Segal (who was on board to direct) left the project, citing the difficulties of turning Shazam's story into a film. Nobody was expecting it to turn up on the schedule, especially with such a close release date. How Excited We Are For It: It's hard to be excited about a project that nobody saw coming, but we're definitely intrigued to find out more. However, if this is indeed the secret DC character that The Rock has been hinting at recently, we're officially on board.
Sandman Release Date: December 2016 Who's In It: Joseph Gordon-Levitt is set to produce the project, and is also rumored to be starring as Dream. What We Know About It: To start, it has nothing to do with the other comic book movies that Warner Bros. is working on. The film, which is based on Neil Gaiman's wildly popular series, has been in development for 25 years, but this time Gaiman is involved in production, which is a good sign. However, the script is being written by David Goyer, which could cancel out some of that goodwill. How Excited We Are For It: Cautiously optimistic. The release date is the biggest sign of confidence we've seen so far, but there are still too many elements up in the air for us to to completely drop our guards.
Justice League Release Date: May 2017 Who's In It: Thus far, we're guaranteed to see Affleck, Cavill, and Gadot as Batman, Superman and Wonder Woman, respectively, as well as Ray Fisher as Cyborg. The studio has yet to cast the remaining team members, although Matt Damon and Jason Momoa have both been rumored for Aquaman. What We Know About It: It will be DC and Warner Bros' answer to The Avengers, so expect lots of action, explosions, and angst. It should also be connected to Batman Vs. Superman in some way, but that's all that's been revealed thus far. How Excited We Are: We're going to have to see Batman Vs. Superman first, but we're definitely looking forward to this one. Hopefully, the studio will use this as an opportunity to add some much-needed levity to the dark, gritty universe they're currently building. What's the point of a superhero film without the wisecracks?
Wonder Woman Release Date: July 2017 Who's In It: The only one we can say for sure is Gadot as Diana Prince a.k.a. Princess Diana of Themyscira a.k.a. Wonder Woman.What We Know About It: Next to nothing. DC and Warner Bros have wavered for so long on making a Wonder Woman movie that we have no idea what to expect, although we do have very high hopes. How Excited We Are For It: Are you kidding? We'd buy tickets now if we could. Fans have been clamoring for a Wonder Woman movie for so long that it's hard not to be a little skeptical about its chances of actually making it into theaters, but until we hear otherwise, we're just going to enjoy knowing that a Wonder Woman film is finally on its way.
Flash/Green Lantern Release Date: December 2017Who's In It: Though the DC universe technically already has a Green Lantern in Ryan Reynolds, they haven't hinted at whether he'll be reprising his role, or if they're looking in a new direction (probably the latter).What We Know About It: Again, next to nothing. We don't even know which iteration of the Green Lantern will be part of the team. It would make sense to continue with Hal Jordan, but if they're looking to differentiate this Lantern from Reynolds', they might be better off choosing a different alter ego. How Excited We Are For It: Not very. The last Green Lantern film was terrible, so we don't have a lot of confidence that this one will be better, and we can get our Flash fix with the upcoming CW show, so we won't be marking our calendars for this one just yet.
Man of Steel 2 Release Date: May 2018 Who's In It: Cavill, of course. We also wouldn't be surprised to see Adams, Fishburne, and Diane Lane come back, since they've all signed on for Batman Vs. Superman... unless any of them faces a grim fate in that film, which isn't too unlikely.What We Know About It: It will most likely deal directly with the events of Batman Vs. Superman and Justice League, although we are suprised to hear of this "official" Man of Steel sequel, considering Warner Bros. has been billing Batman Vs. Superman as such for some time now. How Excited We Are For It: We're in favor of anything that promises to get the memory of the first Man of Steel out of our head. Here's a chance to fix your mistakes, Warner Bros.

There is something particularly unnerving about demon possession. It's the idea of something you can't see or control creeping into your body and taking up residence eventually obliterating all you once were and turning you into nothing more than a sack of meat to be manipulated. Then there's also the shrouded ritual around exorcisms: the Latin chants the flesh-sizzling crucifixes and the burning Holy Water. As it turns out exorcism isn't just the domain of Catholics.
The myths and legends of the Jews aren't nearly as well known but their creepy dybbuk goes toe-to-toe with anything other world religions come up with. There are various interpretations of what a dybbuk is or where it comes from — is it a ghost a demon a soul of a sinner? — but in any case it's looking for a body to hang out in for a while. Especially according to the solemn Hasidic Jews in The Possession an innocent young person and even better a young girl.
The central idea in The Possession is that a fancy-looking wooden box bought at a garage sale was specifically created to house a dybbuk that was tormenting its previous owner. Unfortunately it caught the eye of young Emily (Natasha Calis) a sensitive artistic girl who persuades her freshly divorced dad Clyde (Jeffrey Dean Morgan of Watchmen and Grey's Anatomy) to buy it for her. Never mind the odd carvings on it — that would be Hebrew — or how it's created without seams so it would be difficult to open or why it's an object of fascination for a young girl; Clyde is trying really hard to please his disaffected daughters and do the typical freshly divorced parent dance of trying to please them no matter the cost.
Soon enough the creepy voices calling to Emily from the box convince her to open it up; inside are even creepier personal objects that are just harbingers of what's to come for her her older sister Hannah (Madison Davenport) her mom Stephanie (Kyra Sedgwick) and even Stephanie's annoying new boyfriend Brett (Grant Show). Clyde and Stephanie squabble over things like pizza for dinner and try to convince each other and themselves that Emily's increasingly odd behavior is that of a troubled adolescent. It's not of course and eventually Clyde enlists the help of the son of a Hasidic rabbi a young man named Tzadok played by the former Hasidic reggae musician Matisyahu to help them perform an exorcism on Emily.
The Possession is not going to join the ranks of The Exorcist in the horror pantheon but it does do a remarkable job of making its characters intelligent and even occasionally droll and it offers up plenty of chills despite a PG-13 rating. Perhaps it's because of that rating that The Possession is so effective; the filmmakers are forced to make the benign scary. Giant moths and flying Torahs take the place of little Reagan violently masturbating with a crucifix in The Exorcist. Gagging and binging on food is also an indicator of Emily's possession — an interesting twist given the anxieties of becoming a woman a girl Emily's age would face. There is something inside her controlling her and she knows it and she is fighting it. The most impressive part of Calis's performance is how she communicates Emily's torment with a few simple tears rolling down her face as the dybbuk's control grows. The camerawork adds to the anxiety; one particularly scary scene uses ordinary glass kitchenware to great effect.
The Possession is a short 92 minutes and it does dawdle in places. It seems as though some of the scenes were juggled around to make the PG-13 cut; the moth infestation scene would have made more sense later in the movie. Some of the problems are solved too quickly or simply and yet it also takes a while for Clyde's character to get with it. Stephanie is a fairly bland character; she makes jewelry and yells at Clyde for not being present in their marriage a lot and then there's a thing with a restraining order that's pretty silly. Emily is occasionally dressed up like your typical horror movie spooky girl with shadowed eyes an over-powdered face and dark clothes; it's much more disturbing when she just looks like an ordinary though ill young girl. The scenes in the heavily Hasidic neighborhood in Brooklyn look oddly fake and while it's hard to think of who else could have played Tzadok an observant Hasidic Jew who is also an outsider willing to take risks the others will not Matisyahu is not a very good actor. Still the filmmakers should be commended for authenticity insofar as Matisyahu has studied and lived as a Hasidic Jew.
It would be cool if Lionsgate and Ghost House Pictures were to release the R-rated version of the movie on DVD. What the filmmakers have done within the confines of a PG-13 rating is creepy enough to make me curious to see the more adult version. The Possession is no horror superstar and its name is all too forgettable in a summer full of long-gestating horror movies quickly pushed out the door. It's entertaining enough and could even find a broader audience on DVD. Jeffrey Dean Morgan can read the Old Testament to me any time.

A decade-long gap between sequels could leave a franchise stale but in the case of Men in Black 3 it's the launch pad for an unexpectedly great blockbuster. The kooky antics of Agent J (Will Smith) and Agent K (Tommy Lee Jones) don't stray far from their 1997 and 2002 adventures but without a bombardment of follow-ups to keep the series in mind the wonderfully weird sensibilities of Men in Black feel fresh Smith's natural charisma once again on full display. Barry Sonnenfeld returns for the threequel another space alien romp with a time travel twist — which turns out to be Pandora's Box for the director's deranged imagination.
As time passed in the real world so did it for the timeline in the world of Men in Black. Picking up ten years after MIB 2 J and K are continuing to protect the Earth from alien threats and enforce the law on those who live incognito. While dealing with their own personal issues — K is at his all-time crabbiest for seemingly no reason — the suited duo encounter an old enemy Boris the Animal (Jemaine Clement) a prickly assassin seeking revenge on K who blew his arm off back in the '60s. Their street fight is more of a warning; Boris' real plan is to head back in time to save his arm and kill off K. He's successful prompting J to take his own leap through the time-space continuum — and team up with a younger K (Josh Brolin) to put an end to Boris plans for world domination.
Men in Black 3 is the Will Smith show. Splitting his time between the brick personalities of Jones and Brolin's K Smith struts his stuff with all the fast-talking comedic style that made him a star in yesteryears. In present day he's still the laid back normal guy in a world of oddities — J raises an eyebrow as new head honcho O (Emma Thompson) delivers a eulogy in a screeching alien tongue but coming up with real world explanations for flying saucer crashes comes a little easier. But back in 1969 he's an even bigger fish out water. Surprisingly director Barry Sonnenfeld and writer Etan Cohen dabble in the inherent issues that would spring up if a black gentlemen decked out in a slick suit paraded around New York in the late '60s. A star of Smith's caliber may stray away from that type of racy humor but the hook of Men in Black 3 is the actor's readiness for anything. He turns J's jokey anachronisms into genuine laughs and doesn't mind letting the special effect artists stretch him into an unrecognizable Twizzler for the movie's epic time jump sequence.
Unlike other summer blockbusters Men in Black 3 is light on the action Sonnenfeld utilizing his effects budget and dazzling creature work (by the legendary Rick Baker) to push the comedy forward. J's fight with an oversized extraterrestrial fish won't keep you on the edge of your seat but his slapstick escape and the marine animal's eventual demise are genuinely amusing. Sonnenfeld carries over the twisted sensibilities he displayed in small screen work like Pushing Daisies favoring bizarre banter and elaborating on the kookiness of the alien underworld than battle scenes. MIB3's chase scene is passable but the movie in its prime when Smith is sparring with Brolin and newcomer Michael Stuhlbarg who steals the show as a being capable of seeing the future. His twitchy character keeps Smith and the audience on their toes.
Men in Black 3 digs up nostalgia I wasn't aware I had. Smith's the golden boy of summer and even with modern ingenuity keeping it fresh — Sonnenfeld uses the mandatory 3D to full and fun effect — there's an element to the film that feels plucked from another era. The movie is economical and slight with plenty of lapses in logic that will provoke head scratching on the walk out of the theater but it's also perfectly executed. After ten years of cinematic neutralizing the folks behind Men in Black haven't forgotten what made the first movie work so well. After al these years Smith continues to make the goofy plot wild spectacle and crazed alien antics look good.
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Walters to get bumped in July
ABC is planning to bump 20/20 with Barbara Walters from Fridays to Wednesdays beginning July 25, rather than in September as previously indicated, the New York Daily News reported Wednesday. Curiously, it will be replaced for several weeks by the ABC magazine spin-off 20/20 Downtown, according to the newspaper. (Downtown is due to return to the air on June 11 in its old Monday-night time period.) In September, the drama Once and Again will move into the 10 p.m. Friday slot. Walters has previously expressed her dismay over the network's decision to move her program, which has been a fixture in the Friday time period for 15 years.
Nude news cut on "GMA"
Plans to air an interview with "body paint artist" Filippo Ioco and present some of his models on Good Morning America were abruptly canceled at the last moment last Wednesday following objections by GMA co-host Charles Gibson, the Washington Post reported Wednesday. The newspaper said Gibson voiced concern about the segment at a meeting prior to the show and that producer Shelly Ross and co-anchor Diane Sawyer concurred. Ross told the Post that she had agreed to book Ioco on the show after she had seen a segment of the syndicated Ripley's Believe It or Not!, featuring Ioco and his models, in which viewers said they could not tell that the models were not wearing real bikinis. "But you know what?" Ross told the Post, "You could tell the difference a little bit." Ioco said that he was told about a half hour before airtime that he and his models were off the show because "some senator did something in Washington" that had to be covered instead.
"The young" and the clearest
CBS, which already produces 17 of its 18 primetime dramas and comedies in the high-definition format -- more than any other network -- said Tuesday that it will also begin producing the daytime soap The Young and the Restless in HDTV. The first Y&amp;R episode in the HDTV format is due to air on June 27.
was "Survivor" producer a friend of Rudy?
An additional examination of the deposition given by former Survivor contestant Dirk Been in connection with the lawsuit filed by the producers of the reality series against another contestant, Stacey Stillman, suggests that producer Mark Burnett was a longtime friend of Rudy Boesch, another contestant, and advised Boesch on how best to play the game. In the deposition, Been commented: "[Rudy] just said, 'Hey, me and Burnett, we're friends.' He said it to me privately and he said it to the group. It's not something Rudy tried to hide or was ashamed of in any way." News reports said on Tuesday that Burnett and Boesch met in 1996 when Boesch was part of a Navy Seals team that competed on Burnett's Eco-Challenge series, which airs on the Discovery Channel. Been also indicated during the deposition that Burnett advised Boesch on strategy during the Survivor contest. Following the Survivor series, Boesch was hired by Burnett to host his next reality series, Combat Missions, set to debut on the USA Network in the fall.
New, improved "big brother" returning in July
CBS, which drew respectable, if not the phenomenal ratings it had hoped for when it ran its original Big Brother series last season, announced Tuesday that it will bring back the reality game show on July 5 -- with a "new, improved format." Instead of airing the series six nights a week for a half-hour a night as it did then, the network will now carry it on Tuesdays, Thursdays and Saturdays for one hour each night. Instead of 10 contestants, there'll be twelve. Even the music is being tweaked. Washington Post TV columnist Lisa de Moraes, writing in Wednesday edition, began describing some of the format changes, then interrupted herself in mid-description with the comment, "Oh, forget it, you don't need to know what's going on. It's a peep show, OK?"
Shower scene may get "Big Brother" contestant fired
Penny Ellis, a contestant on the British version of Big Brother may lose her job as a teacher after she was seen momentarily nude as she stepped from a shower on the TV show. Headmistress Cauther Tooley of the Sarah Bonnell School in Stratford told the BBC, "If she chooses to behave in a lewd manner, she will have made the choice to leave the school." She added, however, that she had not seen the controversial scene herself. "I've only heard about it. I understand that it was an accident and the towel slipped." Britain's Channel 4 network, which carries the reality series, later broadcast an apology for showing the bathroom scene.
A memorable Memorial Day
With outstanding ticket sales for Disney's Pearl Harbor, DreamWorks' Shrek, and Universal's The Mummy Returns, the Memorial Day weekend produced a memorable box-office record of $186 million, beating last year's record of $184.6 million, according to The Associated Press. But unlike last year, when five films competed strongly at the box office (headed by Mission: Impossible 2, which grossed 71.8 million), the top three this past holiday weekend accounted for 80 percent of the total gate. "It's really the strength of this handful of films that opened within the last few weeks that propelled this record-breaking weekend," Exhibitor Relations chief Paul Dergarabedian told AP Tuesday.
Could "Pearl Harbor" have earned $100 million?
Leading the box office was Pearl Harbor with $75.2 million. Although some analysts had forecast last week that the film would become the first to top the $100-million mark in its debut, Disney officials pointed out that given its three-hour running time, such a feat would have been impossible. The studio claimed that the film played to sell-out crowds everywhere. "What greater compliment to a filmmaker [than] to know his show is sold out show after show after show," Disney distribution chief Chuck Viane told Bloomberg News. But, as New York Daily News critic Jack Mathews pointed out Wednesday: "Multiplexes are not limited to how many theaters they can use. You can be sure that if lines are around the block, screens will be added to accommodate them." Mathews estimated that, while Disney claimed the movie was "officially" showing on 3,214 screens, the actual number was more like 6,000 (a figure that might explain the poor showing of all but the top films). Solomon Smith Barney entertainment analyst released a report Tuesday predicting that Pearl Harbor will eventually gross between $200 million and $250 million domestically.
The top 10 films over the four-day Memorial Day weekend, according to final figures compiled by Exhibitor Relations (figures in parentheses represent total gross to date):
1. Pearl Harbor, Disney, $75.2 million, ($75.2 million); 2. Shrek, DreamWorks, $55.2 million, ($111.8 million); 3. The Mummy Returns, Universal, $19 million, ($170.7 million); 4. A Knight's Tale, Sony, $9.1 million, ($44.3 million); 5. Angel Eyes, Warner Bros., $6.2 million, ($18.5 million); 6. Bridget Jones's Diary, Miramax, $4.2 million, ($62.4 million); 7. Along Came a Spider, Paramount, $2.1 million, ($70.6 million); 8. Memento, Newmarket, $2 million, ($14.5 million); 9. Spy Kids, Miramax, $1.3 million, ($105.2 million); 10. Blow, New Line, $1.24 million, ($51.6 million)..
"Town and Country" is worst flop in movie history
With New Line's Town and Country virtually pulled from release after earning only $6,712,451 in four weeks, the $80-million film now ranks as the biggest flop in movie history, FoxNews.com's Roger Friedman observed Wednesday. It succeeds the 1998 Kevin Costner starrer, The Postman.
Writer wants to know how much "Roger Rabbit" really made
The author who wrote the novel on which Disney's 1988 animated feature Who Framed Roger Rabbit was based has sued the studio, demanding that it produce an accounting of merchandise revenue related to the film. In his lawsuit, novelist Gary K. Wolf does not name a monetary figure but asks only that he be permitted to audit the studio's books related to the film.
Jackie Chan to star in Hong Kong's most expensive film
Jackie Chan has announced that he will star in an epic Mandarin-language film for Hong Kong's Golden Harvest Studios. With a budget of $78 million, it will be more than twice as costly as the most expensive film previously produced in the Asian film center. Titled The Art of War, it is to be based on the 2,000-year-old writings of Chinese philosopher Sun Tzu. As reported by Screen Daily, the online edition of the British trade publication Screen International, Chan will also serve as executive producer. In addition, the actor said that he has agreed to appear in what Golden Harvest is now calling Untitled Jackie Chan Action Adventure, to be filmed in English.
U.K.'s equity prepares to negotiate with producers
The British actors' union, Equity, is sounding tougher than its American counterpart as it prepares to enter into contract-renewal talks with British film producers on Friday. In a statement, Equity, which has 36,000 members, said Tuesday: "The cream of British talent has sent a stark message to U.K. film producers -- pay us properly or face a dispute. ... If these talks fail, Equity is bound to consider escalating the dispute." The actors have indicated that when they meet with negotiators for the Producers' Alliance for Cinema and Television, they will demand what appears to be the equivalent of residual payments. Currently they receive a flat fee.